Desperate Times call for Drastic Measures

Tyler is addicted to video games. He has a blue tooth headset that he uses when he's playing some of his games online. A few weeks ago the ear piece broke off the blue tooth. I assumed he would use some of his money to purchase a new one. I went downstairs to what we call "the dungeon" one day to check on him because he had not seen the light of day in a while. This is what I found when I went down:




I hope you can tell by the pictures that he used packing tape to tape the broken blue tooth to stay in his ear. I guess I should be happy he's trying to save a buck, right?

Add Another One to the Injured List

Two weeks ago yesterday I took the girls to a birthday party at the skating rink for the little boy across the street. Hailey got her skates on and was off. She hadn't been on those skates five minutes and she came over to where I was with tears in her eyes holding her wrist. We immediately went to the concession stand and got a bag of ice to put on it. Needless to say that was the end of her skating that day. It continued to swell over the weekend.

I took her to the orthopedic doctor Monday. The x-rays didn't show any obvious breaks but her doctor felt that the fall had affected the growth plates in her wrist and hand. As you can see she's been in a cast for the last two weeks. She picked lime green for the color and has now had all her classmates sign it. We go back tomorrow afternoon to get it off. Pray that everything looks good and she won't have to go back into another cast.

Snow Day!!!!

So we finally get a decent snow after all the misses the last couple of months. It was a challenge keeping the kids inside until the ground had a good covering. I kept telling them if they'd wait until it built up it would be that much more fun. Fortunately the neighbors had the same idea. After lunch all the neighbor kids were out so I couldn't keep them in any longer. As you can tell from the pictures they had a blast.

Same Kind of Different As Me

Same Kind of Different As Me is one of my favorite books. It's a true story about a homeless man and an international art dealer brought together by an obedient and faithful Christian lady. When they decided to follow God's will, He changed their lives forever.

I went to Samford University last night to hear the authors of the book speak. The authors are the two men the book is about, Denver Moore and Ron Hall. The lady who changed their lives was Debbie Hall, Ron's wife. She passed away several years ago but the work God did through her is amazing! I highly recommend you read this book.

Spelling Bee Champ

Hailey won her class spelling bee Monday. She went on to the school spelling bee Tuesday morning. She finished fourth! She went 4 or 5 rounds doing really well and then the word "sculpture" got her. She received a medal and a certificate. She wasn't the first place winner, but she's a champ to us and we're so proud of her!

2009 Wrap Up

So here it is, a summary of the last few months of 2009. I will try to keep the blog updated this year.

It starts with Halloween. Hailey was a clown, Sadie was a princess, and Sam was a butterfly.







Tyler got his permit.


Lots of fun with cousins!

Randy made a fashion statement.

The shirt tells it all.

Sam's first birthday party.



Our annual trip to the Nutcracker.


Christmas!



Notice Tyler's brace and Logan's cast.




Tyler's big Christmas gift. Randy has a love of old VW beetles. This is one of three that he has. He was so excited to fix this one up and give it to Tyler for Christmas.

On The Mend

As you know Tyler broke his elbow August 18. After the doctor told us he needed two more months to heal Randy and I decided we needed another opinion. Randy had a doctor who did his knee surgery a couple of years ago. After over a week and much time on the phone trying to get records transferred I ended up having to go pick them up and deliver them myself to the new doctor. Dr. Flanagan ordered a CT scan which showed that it really hadn't healed much at all and told us he needed surgery.

On November 17 Tyler had surgery to have a screw put into his elbow and a bone graft done from his hip to fill in where the screw went. We're now a month out from surgery and it seems to be healing. He was put into an arm brace three weeks after surgery and is now going through some physical therapy to increase his flexibility and strength in that arm. We go back to the doctor December 31 and are praying after 4 1/2 months of this he will finally be able to do more than play video games!